Controlling material resources in the military: The need for ambidexterity

Abstract

This chapter examines how organizations can achieve careful -responsible and ethical -employee behaviour with respect to material resources. First, the impact of culture on material resources management is investigated. Furthermore, this study aims to determine which kind of controls is more effective in managing the material resources, hereby drawing a distinction between hard and soft controls. The data, on which this chapter builds, were collected by means of a survey among employees, both civilian and military, with responsibilities in material resources management of the Dutch Defence organization. This study shows-contrary to the expectation- that military culture has a positive impact on material resources management. This study also shows that soft controls have the expected direct positive impact. Hard controls only have an indirect effect; embedded in a system of soft controls, they also influence material resources management in a positive way. These findings demonstrate the Dutch Defence organization has to be skilful in hard as well as soft controls to manage the material resources carefully proving the need for ambidexterity.